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Kazumi Toyoshima Interview

"I think I was fortuned. I grew up with comfort. But that taught me to learn hungry spirit." - Kazumi Toyoshima

From the official bio of Kazumi Toyoshima: "Started compose music since 2000 actively, form the unit called BL-M. With and without BL-M he has been actively creating his own composition and establishing his own style. During the years of mid 2000s, for about 5 years, he had been away from the music scene. In the 2009, he came back from the silence to restart his music career. Today his production has been progressed and expose to the various media mainly overseas. Since 2009, he released 3 single as his solo project and those 3 of the music clips (promotion video) were aired in CATV in New Zealand as well as in Australia."

"Also his exclusive interview were aired on J-Pop Exchange radio show (wvcr) and aired several times in that show with his collaborated and produced artists. His songs were also aired in LA radio show Independent Corner (Indies401) and his song Legend Of Mind has been nominated as the Best song in the last year by voting from the listeners."

That interview was conducted on March 20th, 2010, by SeanBird from J-Pop Exchange. Reproduced here with permission for J-Pop World.
All photos courtesy of Kazumi Toyoshima.

Hi Kazumi, thank you for taking the time to speak with us...

Thank you!

Would you mind sharing with us what it was like growing up in Japan?

I think I was fortuned. I grew up with comfort. But that taught me to learn hungry spirit. Japanese are not valued things by surrounded with so many things. What is I hate to do that so I am trying not to make any waste as I implement everything that I have created.

How did you develop your musical and technical abilities? And what led you to want to pursue a career in music?

Totally self taught. As to play the synth and or guitar, I play them freely. By doing this I could see and find out the completely new world of my music. The tracks I have been composing are the result of what I have doing it. To release them to the world and to listening to the various feedback and comment are the invitation to the next step to go forward.

Can you tell us something about your inspiration and/or motivation for your songs In the Night and I Miss You?

When it comes to In the Night, I was practicing playing piano I found out the code that I have never played, and I kept layering the code. And then the track In the Night was there. On the process of composing this track I felt the image of this track became closer to the image of the Night, so I added more essence to come out the image and atomosphere.

And I Miss You, I was wanted to compose fast tempo pop track. I created the image of the mysterious though clearing up the night sky image on this track.

Can you give us some insight into your writing process?

I compose songs by DTM. Depends on the track but I usually sit in front of the synth and play roughly. At this point I just play not intention to anything songs or tracks, just keep playing the synth. And then, I record the sounds when I found out the phrases and code that I liked. On the other case of my way to compose, I just expand the image and world the track by improvisation.

What music do you listen to?

I want to export a lot of different genre of music so I am listening to what I can hear from the radio or TV. Recently I am listening to Lady Gaga.

Have you had other overseas performances? Or do you plan other such performances?

Last year, my PV was aired twice on CATV in New Zealand. I have registered online independent music site all over the world so I have got several offers as well. I am planning to expose myself to a lot of aspect through the website.

Would you ever consider touring in the USA?

Right now I am working on the composing tracks for overseas. I am living in Japan but I am thinking that it would be great to provide my tracks to she or he who wants to sing my track and I am just happy if they could tour their own. My collaborated artists are in US, UK, New Zealand, and Australia.

How can fans contact you to learn more about your music?

I have an official site of my own, KT Sequence Studio.com. I have registered and active on the online site called Stereofame and you can listen to my tracks there as well. I also have my page on MySpace site. as well.

Do you have any current or upcoming projects that you'd like to talk about?

I have been working on the project that collaborate with the oversea artists. Right now I am trying to establish the style to promote our songs and tracks by ourselves, and I am providing my tracks to the artists who wants to be big in overseas in Japan. I have tons of tracks so I am providing the tracks that is suits for the artist.

In conclusion, is there anything you'd like to talk about/mention that we haven't discussed thus far?

I am not willing to perform on the stage in the spotlight. I want to helping out the people who wants to be big with music, songs or entertainment. Maybe I should call myself a backstage staff. I provide tracks and sometimes I produce them to be expose to the world. As the style of "let's become big together!"

Thank you again for taking time out of your busy schedule to speak with us. Good luck with everything!